Outcasts and Rogues
by SpartAl412
Summary: A continuation to A Chosen Path and the beginning to a series of tales


**_The following event takes place 10 Terran years after the event of 'A Chosen Path'_**

Take a deep breath and aim, he mentally told himself as he looked down the scope of his rifle. Ellarian was crouched upon a branch of a massive tree like fungus; his cloak blended him into the nightly canopy and he waited, he surveyed the area, looking for his prey. Silence passed and still he waited in patience till a rustle amongst the brush underneath caught his attention, with swift movement he swung his rifle to aim below, he held his breath and fired a shot. His rifle created a loud _Thh-kaww _and from it lanced a beam of bluish white energy that burst forth from the barrel; he was rewarded with a surprised shriek of pain and he grinned.

Gently climbing down the tree, Ellarian surveyed the area to make sure things were clear, when felt satisfied it was, he drew his hunting blade and crept towards his kill. The creature he had shot was a short but heavy looking red skinned beast with two legs attached to a bulbous body with a huge maw filled with too many teeth. The creature or Squig as the green skins called them were a staple in the orkish diet and according to more than a few other outcasts were perfectly safe to eat for an Eldar, he went about cutting off the meat around the creature's softer and less muscled areas into several small pieces, each of which he would wrap with leaves. When he was satisfied that he had gained enough good meat from the creature, he left in time after hearing the approach of some of the forest more native and possibly more deadly predators.

The Ranger returned to his camp, he had to climb an ancient tree with his rifle slung across his shoulder and onto a simple yet sturdy platform made of wood, mud and vines. He placed his rifle gently upon the side of the platform where his makeshift bed of leaves were and moved to his survival kit, it was a simple leather bag and from the kit he removed a circular device which he placed on the center of the platform, he then took out a metal pot which he placed on top of the device. He pressed a few buttons upon the device and soon the metal pot began to heat, he then began to pour a clear emerald liquid from a clay flask into the pot and when it began to bubble he placed the leaf wrapped meat into it.

The Ranger waited for the meat to cook, he removed his helm and soon was able to smell the aroma of which began to make his mouth water, over eighty cycles he had been on this world, learning about some of its many flora and fauna and occasionally taking shots at a few things here and there but nothing serious to worry about in his encounters. What had brought him to this world was nothing more than pure chance. He noticed one of the meat pieces seemed ready and so he gingerly used a pair of stick to remove the meat, he gently opened the leaf wrapping and was greeted with an aromatic rush of steam, he used his fingers to pull a piece out tasted the meat, it was just about right he thought.

Ellarian ate his meal in quiet and gave himself a moment of reflection and meditation. It had been many passes since he had left his Craftworld, his first destination was an Exodite world where he had spent over twenty of that world's seasons learning to hunt, gather and fend for himself with of course the occasional aid from the locals. Although he had found the Exodites to be rather backwards and rustic compared to his home, he had to admit there was a certain charm to the way they lived and he had spent much time learning their traditions, songs and culture. He had bade farewell to his host and then travelled to more Exodite worlds, he marveled at the diversity of environments they learned to survive or even thrive upon and it gave him a small sense of hope that perhaps those people of Biel-Tan may actually be on to something.

During his journey he had traversed the webway to go from one maiden world to another and had even traveled to a number of Haven Spires where he met with other outcasts and travelers. On his most recent travel he had witnessed several dark objects moving at high speed, he hid himself and watched as the object flew past him, although they moved with amazing speed, The glimpses he caught of the vehicles he recognized them as of belonging to the Dark Kin of Commoragh, he hoped they did not see him and he wondered if he should pursue them or if he should be on his own way, in the end his curiosity got the better of him and he followed the Commorites.

His pursuit had led him to this world which was inhabited by orks and several breeds of animal-like creatures he simply dubbed as beast-men and he was sure they worshipped the Dark Gods. In the cycles that followed he simply observed the Commorites from a distance and watched as they unleashed many raids upon the orks and beast-men, he noticed that the Dark Kin were primarily composed of scantily clad male and female warriors wielding close combat weapons he knew were called Wyches and many were accompanied by other Dark Eldar riding aboard anti gravity boards and wielding double ended pole arms, these warriors he knew were called Hellions. And there were also many Dark Eldar riding upon jet bikes he knew were called Reavers, Ellarian had watched in morbid fascination as the Dark Kin launched their raids, killing many but also crippling and capturing many prisoners, the camps of the Commorites were filled with screams of pain from the captives and sinister laughter from Eldar throats.

During his observations of the Dark Kin he was able to eavesdrop upon conversations, these particular ones belonged to a sect who called themselves The Cult of Strife. They often talked about the raids, of boasts and achievements and often simply gossiping amongst each other as if it were simple day at a market. Among the Dark Kin there was one who particularly caught his eye, on multiple occasions he had spotted a pale skinned, raven haired maiden of extraordinary beauty, like the other Wyches she was scantily clad and the only armor she wore was a spiked pauldron upon right arm with another spiked set of vambrace and bracer on the same arm and a pair of greaves which protected the most of the maiden's thighs but left the flesh around the upper area of her thighs, her buttocks and her feet exposed. He easily deduced by the way the Dark Kin treated this maiden she was the raiding force's leader.

He had watched the maiden dispatch many mighty ork and beast-men chieftains as if they were nothing more than children, he was amazed by the grace and skill of the maiden and often was fascinated when she like many of the Dark Kin would go about flaying and torturing their victims. On one occasion when he watched a Commorite camp, he caught sight of her lazily sitting upon a makeshift throne of quivering human slaves of which he noted seemed rather eager to bend their bodies to the form. He couldn't help but feel a stab of jealousy at the slaves as his mind wandered to them feeling the touch of the maiden but quickly shook such thoughts away. And so he continued to observe the Dark Kin, mainly using the scope of his rifle to watch the maiden, later that evening the maiden he viewed gave a laugh and a smile to one of her minions who must have told something amusing, then she looked squarely at his direction, she gave him a lascivious grin and a wink, and it was enough to make Ellarian's blood run cold. He ran for his life with the most terror he had ever felt at the thought of the Dark Kin giving him chase.

He had then spent the next several cycles barely being able to sleep or eat, looking over his shoulder and around him expecting the Commorites to find him, he had thought about leaving this world, but knew that even in the Webway the Dark Kin could chase him. A few cycles after his flight, the Commorites left, but the damage they had done was severe to the many surrounding tribes of orks and beast-men who savagely began fighting amongst their own kind, likely in several coups and power struggles, entire villages were emptied out with only a few mutilated corpses that seemed to even horrify the green skins. Ellarian began to relax in the last twenty cycles but sometimes when he slept he dreamt of the dark maiden with her legs spread over him pinning him down, he could not move and was helpless as she held a cruel looking dagger over him, he would always awake before the blade bit into his flesh, each time he would awake drenched in cold sweat and shamefully he would feel a mixture of desire and fear for that maiden of Commoragh.

* * *

After his meal and time of introspection, he cleaned and stowed away his belonging into his kit, he lay upon the bed of leaves with his cloak as a blanket, and he made sure to keep his pistol and his blade close. His sleep had been very cold but calm and peaceful despite the sounds of the wildlife; when dawn came he heated a pot of water and placed several dried flowers into the pot, he waited for the black petals to steep and drank in the hot liquid which chased away the coldness of the night and gave him a sense of calmness. He took out a large purple fruit from his bag which he had gathered the day before and began slicing away the flesh; he bit into the succulently sweet and juicy thing, savoring it.

When he finished the fruit he removed his garments covering his upper body with the exception of his glove and began to climb to the top of the canopy, after a few minutes of climbing, he was greeted by a golden sunshine that blinded him for only a moment and Elllarian watched with satisfaction as the sun rose over the west. From his position he could mostly see a sea of azure trees, but to the far west were snow capped mountains and to the south was a grassy plain also azure in color which he often avoided for there were many savage clans there, he removed his gloves and allowed the sun to bathe his exposed flesh.

In this moment of bliss he looked up contentedly at the world's azure sky and noticed something moving in the air blazing with fire, he took out his auspex which was still attached to his belt and nestled his eyes to the proper end of the device, although the object was still far away, he recognized it as of being a human vessel, burning with the heat of entry into the world's atmosphere, he wondered if it was a war ship containing soldiers, if it was then Ellarian remembered well where the webway gates were and would be able to either get a closer look at the humans where they landed and get out if he needed to.

He guessed that by the trajectory of the ship it would land on the plains near the borders of the forest, Ellarian wondered if the humans came armed, because they would certainly need it against the savages. He quickly put his gloves back on and began to climb down back towards his camp, Ellarian removed his remaining garments and then put on a skin tight body suit, he then equipped a breastplate of wraith bone, he fastened his cloak and finally his helmet, he checked his weapons and ensured that each was properly loaded, he made sure to take a trio of plasma grenades just in case.

He climbed down the tree and darted off towards the nearest webway gate, in his exploration across this world, he had found a number of such gates scattered about across the world, many bore insignias he was unfamiliar with and assumed that perhaps this world was of some sort of importance to his people before The Fall. He carefully maneuvered through vegetation and soon found his way to an ancient arch, he placed his hands to a console behind the arch and activated it, a shimmering disc of light materialized and Ellarian went through.

Within the twisting paths of the webway Ellarian darted for the direction of a gate near the borders of the plains, when the ranger emerged from the gate he surveyed the area and got his bearings, he charged towards the direction of where the tree line ended and looked to the sky, the ship was now slowly descending a few miles away from his position to the south east, he then went off keeping himself alert for any orks or beast-men, he found a tree to climb up, he settled upon a branch and set his sight to the ship. He noticed the ship was now descending more slowly, he continued his observation for its landing, with a great thump and a mild tremor of the earth as the ship landed, at a closer look the vessel had the crude and primitive design common among the upstarts.

The ship was held above the earth on six metallic legs giving the contraption a resemblance to a large insect. As he continued his observation he noticed on the side he was observing a hatch opened and a ramp extended down, he looked through the scope of his rifle, and aimed waiting to see if anyone came out. As he continued his aim, he saw that nothing was happening, puzzled at this he wondered if he should get closer to investigate, he put down his rifle then moved his hands to his helmet, he removed the piece of armor and began sniffing the air, he wanted to be sure he was the only one in the area before investigating the human vessel. He smelled only the natural scents of the forest but then he picked up something that caused him to crinkle his nose, he smelled old sweat, rotten meat and dung, Orks he thought with disgust, he soon picked up the faint sounds of shouting.

He used his scope to look at the ship and noticed there was a red smear on the ramp, he followed the smear downwards and saw a dark blue armored human body feebly attempting to limp away. He heard a distant sound of gunfire from the ship and saw the armored human fall into the tall grass, down the ramp came a group of three barefooted brutish looking humans clad in sleeveless rags and wielding heavy rifles, a mutiny? He thought, the humans surveyed the area and one of them pointed to the direction of where the orks were coming, the humans seemed to start squabbling on what to do and soon it seemed they would start shooting at each other. Eventually the humans stopped fighting and looked up the ramp, the humans quickly went up, Ellarian remained silent wondering what was going on but keeping an eye around his position, he was confident that the orks were very far from him and their attention was on the ship, so he continued to observe.

As Ellarian maintained his vigil he heard another faint sound of gunfire and saw several spatters of blood hit the ramp and a body fell down, he saw it was one of the brutish humans who was now missing a large chunk of flesh above the head and leaking brain matter. The dead human was soon followed by another dark blue armored body which fell from the hatch, the orks continued to advance towards the ship, they began firing their crude guns at the ship, Ellarian could not tell if there was any actual damage being done to the ship, or if the orks were even hitting it. Soon several humans began going down the ramp, they wielded more of the rifles as well as hand guns and began firing at the orks, the humans aim was as appalling as the orks as none of the brutes even fell, the humans quickly retreated back up the ramp and orks went in closer.

The orks quickly closed in on the ship shouting and firing, there was an explosion of blood from one of the green skins nearest to the ramp, and was soon followed more explosions of blood, Ellarian assumed that at a closer range the humans were more accurate but the orks were just too numerous and they overwhelmed the ramp, more and more orks were soon piling into the ship and Ellarian guessed that was just about it. The unlucky humans were probably squig food now or about to be, he felt a bit disappointed but wasn't sure on what to expect, he slung his rifle behind his shoulder was about to climb off the branch, he took one last look and saw that the ship began lifting off. He quickly put his rifle back up and looked into the scope.

The ramp on the vessel retracted and soon the hatch closed, he wondered if the humans were successful in repelling the orks as it went back up the atmosphere, his gaze lingered upon the vessel as it ascended, it suddenly began to lurch and an explosion occurred which shocked the ranger. More explosions began occurring within the ship and Ellarian wondered if the orks had explosives, then the ship began to descend and he saw that it was heading down back into the plains. He noticed something shoot out off the side of the ship, he tracked its movement with his rifle scope and cursed that it was not enough, he quickly went for his auspex and zoomed in, the object was still too far off and was moving fast towards the western mountains.

* * *

Ellarian descended from the tree and sprinted off towards the nearest webway gate, he easily maneuvered through the vegetation once more, when he reached the gate he activated the console and set course to one of the mountain gates. He stepped through the shining disc and into the webway, he made his way towards the closest mountain gate, the first gate opened onto the snowing foothills of the mountain, the sudden cold was shock to Ellarian who was still used to the hot weather of what he guessed was the region's summer season. He looked up to the sky and saw the object fly over him and it went north-west of his position; he went back into the webway remembering there was a gate around that area.

After emerging from the second mountain gate, Elllarian surveyed the area and got his bearing, he activated his cloak and began to trudge through the snow, and after several minutes of traveling he found a trail in the snow, he observed the prints as of being very hoof-like and muttered a curse. He followed the trail of tracks which began to rather both literally and figuratively grow cold, judging from the tracks there were probably a dozen of the beast-men abroad. The trail led him to a crater which was being surrounded by the savages who were giving curious looks at the object, at closer look, on the object, Ellarian realized it was a pod; he assumed there might be a few survivors within it.

The ranger soon began to wonder on his next move, should he help the humans within pod or leave them to their fate? Ellarian had little love for the children of terra, their species had been a blight upon the Great Wheel for many millennia, they spread out like vermin, colonizing worlds and exterminating other species simply for not being not like them, the creatures lived their short lives in either fear or unreasoning hatred towards others and they strongly believed the galaxy is theirs for some foolish mandate of nonexistent divinity. In the past, Ellarian had fought the humans on many occasions among the Guardians of his Craftworld and more in his time as a ranger, he had learned not to underestimate the Mon'keigh and not to trust them for their blindness and arrogance.

But still something nagged at him, he was aware of the brutality the beast-men tended to show to each other and to the orks, it was something he was not sure if any sentient being deserved, he was also worried at the idea of perhaps some of the humans within the pod may themselves be tainted by the Dark Gods. In the end, Ellarian decided to drive off the beast-men, if the humans inside were chaos tainted then he would have a grenade ready for them, if the humans were not then perhaps he can at the least give them a chance to survive and leave it to fate.

Ellarian found a rocky outcropping from which to set up a position, he was glad that it gave him a good view of the crash site. His sights settled on what seemed to be the leader of the beast-men, a massive shaggy creature with a head resembling a creature he once read about known as a bull, its body was massive and well muscled, it wielded a massive chain-axe with runes that were painful for Ellarian to look upon, there were also several smaller bull headed creatures which carried a variety of axes, blades, and cudgels. Ellarian was thankful for having his rifle, he took aim at the lead beast which began pounding onto the pod with the blunt end of its axe; he took a deep breath and fired.

The lead beast-man's head exploded in a shower of blood and bones, and soon a second beast-man fell; Ellarian reloaded his rifle again and fired another shot taking down a third. This broke the courage of beast-men and they fled away from the site, Ellarian took one last shot and killed a beast-man from behind just to make sure they stay away before slinging his rifle across his shoulder. He pulled out his pistol and a grenade and began to slowly advance towards the pod, Ellarian's mind began to question his course, he remembered the humans might have guns and they might start shooting him as soon as they see him, he quickly stopped in his tracks and wondered what am I doing? Indecision began to bother him, he saw a metal plate from the pod fall out and quickly readied his handgun, he creeped slowly towards the pod, he saw no movements and no sign of life, he remained apprehensive at what was going on, with a muttered curse he decided to go ahead with looking inside.

The pod's hatch was spacious enough for him to crouch through, he feet clanked onto the metal deck, the lights were flickering and the air inside quickly began to grow cold, the interior of the pod seemed large enough to contain a dozen humans, he found the bodies of five of them each also clad in rags. He re-attached his grenade to his belt and removed his left hand glove; Ellarian placed two fingers to the necks of the humans to see if there was any pulse.

The first human he went to was a large muscular male was dead, he found a few large wounds on the human's chest that looked to be from ork bullets, the second was also male albeit scrawnier and was obviously dead as the human's skull was caved in, he noticed on one of the walls a grisly stain of blood and assumed the human was killed by the crash. The third was a tattooed female who still seemed to be alive but was profusely sweating and fidgeting on the floor, the female began spitting out bloody foam from her mouth and soon lay very still, Ellarian was not sure on what just happened but guessed that maybe the female was having a strong withdrawal or was overdosed on some sort of drug. There was another human he saw who was badly burnt and he could not tell the human's gender, the burned human crawled towards Ellarian and had a pleading look of pain in its grey eyes, Ellarian leveled his pistol at the human and ended its misery. The last human was a white haired female with a nasty looking scar over the side of her face going from the lower half of the cheek to her eye, the female seemed to still be alive and stable, but there were bruisings on her limbs and head.

Ellarian wondered again if he should help the human, and against his better judgment decided to do so, if the human turned out to be hostile, then he was reasonably sure that he could kill the female quite easily. He holstered his pistol and lifted the human from under her legs and shoulder, he cradled the human to him like child and trudged back into the snow, he thanked the stars that the area was clear and he made his way back to the nearest webway.

* * *

Later that day, in around what Ellarian guessed to be early afternoon judging from the position of the sun, he had tied some vines to a branch and had created a simple pulley to lift the human up on to the platform. The human's clothes were soaking from the snow and the heat of the sun and so was his cloak, Ellarian removed his cloak and set it upon a branch on the upper canopy where the rays from the sun would dry it, he then went back down to the human and began to remove her garments as well. Ellarian was surprised at how similar humans were to eldar as his gazed lingered on the human female's body, he shook away the thoughts and went back to work, he placed the human's rags near his cloak then he began gathering some vines. When he had gathered enough he began binding the human's limbs to make sure she did not try anything dangerous to him. In the end Ellarian was satisfied with his work, he noted the human's flesh still felt very cold, so he took out his heater, he placed an amethyst like crystal mounted upon a tripod over the center of the device, the crystal began to rotate and generate an air of warmth, Ellarian then went off in search of something fresh to eat.

Out into the forest, Ellarian had filled two water canteens with liquid from a number of thick leaves, during his travels he had learned that the trees of this world absorbed moisture through the leaves, on his first days on this world, the sky rained almost constantly and by his guess he believed the trees used their leaves to gather water and then store it for long periods of time like the plants found on many desserts across the galaxy. Of course, Ellarian was no botanist or horticulturist so he could not be truly sure, but simply what he guessed, he did notice though that many of the leaves were becoming drier than before, he had also gathered several stems of edible mushrooms which oddly grew in manners unlike that of grapes.

At his camp, Ellarian used one canteen to take a heavy gulp of leaf water before pouring the rest into a heated pot, he then placed the mushrooms, and a number of dried herbs and strips of dried meat into it and soon began to savor the aroma of the food. He climbed to the upper part of the canopy to get the humans' clothes, his cloak had dried earlier so he got it first, but later when he came back for the human's he noted that they were gone, he alarmingly looked around the area and spotted a bird using it help build a nest, Ellarian sighed in defeat deciding to use one of his spare clothes and went to the top of the canopy. He saw that the sun was now setting to the east, he saw a large column of smoke from what he assumed was the wreckage of the human ship, he hoped he would find some way to communicate with the human to understand what happened, he now had regrets for not bothering to fully study the human language during his time as an outcast.

As night fell and the temperature began to drop, Ellarian consumed a large portion of the stew but left enough for his guest, the human was now placed upon his makeshift bed still unconscious and he had blanketed her body with some of his spare clothes, he applied a few salves on the human's bruises, he lay down upon his cloak, leaving the heating device on and looked up into the canopy, reflecting again on his life and today's events. He couldn't help but feel a bit conflicted at having this human around, he felt a mixture of excitement at the chance of actually being able to converse with a creature from a different species, yet he was rather apprehensive wondering if this human was another blind fanatic that might just try to murder him in his sleep, his thoughts wandered back to a Tau he had met before taking his path as an Outcast in what seemed like a life time ago and wondered how the creature was faring. Soon sleep found its way to him, and Elllarian fell into a dreamless sleep.

He awakened into the night when he felt movement upon the platform; over his travels he had learned to sleep lightly, Ellarian looked to his side and noticed the human was now awake and struggling with her bonds. The ranger went for his helmet and placed it on, he mentally commanded the optics to switch to low light mode and soon he began to see the environment clearly, the world was rendered in red yet now he could see clearly as if it were day, he saw the human continue her struggle and he could hear grunts of frustration, he wasn't sure on what to do next, should he help? Should he threaten the human into submission? The idea of dominating the creature surprisingly seemed to appeal to him, but he dismissed the idea as it seemed highly inappropriate. In the end he settled on trying to talk things over… with a weapon in hand of course.

Ellarian stood up and silently went towards her, his steps seemed to alarm the human who became very still, looking out into the darkness, Ellarian moved his hands to the heater and began adjusting the controls, he willed his helm to switch to the standard vision mode and for a brief moment all was darkness before the crystal created a bright white light. The human was startled by the sudden appearance of light, Ellarian noticed the color of the human's irises were white, he was surprised at the way the human began to look at him now, rather than fear or anger he saw relief. The human then began babbling something in the human tongue, of which Ellarian had no idea was she was saying, but he caught something that piqued his interest, among the human's words he picked up an "Eorlianeth" and knew that was an Eldar name.

How this human could know an Eldar he wasn't sure, but the human repeated the name often, Ellarian himself knew a number of Eldar from Craftworlders, Exodites and Outcasts by that name. He was sure that perhaps amongst his fellow Outcasts he might find who he needed to, he took out his blade and held it close to the human who became silent and eyes now filled with alarmed, the ranger made a shushing sound and tried to speak in a calming tone, when the human began to calm he removed his spare blanket over the human revealing again her naked form. The human looked surprised and gave him a hard look, Ellarian flinched slightly embarrassed before going back to the bindings, he remained tense and wary of any treachery, after the bindings were cut, he waited for the human to try to attack him but nothing happened, he put his blade away and gave her his clothes.

Ellarian looked intently at the human as she dressed, still readied for any attack, he offered her the remaining but now cold stew and some water, the human at first seemed reluctant but gave in and began eating heartily. The human began chattering something in her language which Ellarian did not understand, he gave a shrug and the human gave gesture he did not understand involving raising both arms and head facing downwards, he was reasonably confident that the human would now not try to kill him, but still he remained wary throughout the night.

The following morning, Ellarian and the human went down the tree, he was surprised that she showed great dexterity and skill, from what little he had been able to learn, the human was named Meris or Merith or something like that, he had tried to give her a brass icon which depicted a two headed bird, the insignia of the Imperium and was surprised that the human refused it. Ellarian carried all of his equipment along with him and the human was now clad in some of his spare clothes which seemed a bit too large for her, unfortunately he did not have any spare shoes or boots so the human walked bare footed across the forest floor. Ellarian helped guide the human to the nearest webway gate; they made good progress and were easily able to avoid any predators.

When they arrived at the gate, Ellarian noticed something which caught his attention he knelt down into the brush and found several sets of fresh boot prints, the human looked at the prints as well and gave Ellarian a questioning look, he immediately began to worry thinking the Dark Kin might be back, he activated the console and saw that it was used recently within the last hour, panic and paranoia began to rise slowly as Ellarian began thinking that perhaps the Dark Kin had come back for him and the maiden would be after him. He began to press several button rather hurriedly on the console, when the gate activated and the shining disc of light appeared he took the human by hand and went for the gate. Before they stepped in, a blade flashed out and stopped, with its tip barely half an inch from Ellarian's throat.

Ellarian began to step back along with the human and more of the blade began to materialize, it was a sword which was soon followed by a gilded gauntlet of Eldar design, the gauntlet was followed by an Eldar warrior in full armor, the unknown warrior held a sword in his right hand and fusion pistol in his left, the warrior's armor was the color of burnished gold with a red eyed helmet of midnight black. Ellarian was somewhat relieved to see the accoutrements of the Eldar to not belong to the Dark Kin but to those of the Corsairs, the other Eldar was soon followed by more Corsairs wielding a variety of blades and guns, then came two eldar in full sets of armor, one was a seer clad in a rune etched suit the second wore what was possibly the most impractically ornate set of armor Ellarian had seen. The last one had many tiny statuettes and gems encrusted into his armor, there were chains with golden sigils attached to many places, the newcomer wore a massive helmet that looks more like a crown with so many glowing gems that it amazed Ellarian, and to the Eldar's sided were a pair of jeweled swords with hilts shaped like a dragon.

The human seemed rather relaxed at the last figure and said something in her language, the last figure began chuckling and said something as well in the same language which elicited a series of laughter from the other Eldar, the ornately armored Eldar then looked to the seer who gave a curt nod, the newcomer then looked to Ellarian and spoke in a rather rich and very regal tone

"I see I have you to thank for Ranger" he said in Eldarin

The Eldar around him put away their weapons and began to orderly return back to the webway gate, soon only the ornately armored Eldar, the Seer, Ellarian himself and the human remained. Ellarian nervously offered his right hand, palm facing vertically to the one he was sure to be the corsair group's leader, the lead Eldar returned gesture with his left and Ellarian quickly relaxed

"You are most welcome, Prince of Corsairs, to whom I would be making the pleasure of meeting?" he asked

"You have the pleasure of meeting Prince Eorlianeth, once of House Angsar of Kaelor, now Lord of the Crescent Wings, Scourge of the Void Blades, Bane of the Arkhan-tep Dynasty and so on and so forth" said the lead Eldar with much pride "and this here" he looked to the seer "is Void Dreamer Mitherion, of Ulthwe". The seer gave a polite nod, and Ellarian returned the gesture.

Ellarian knew only little of Craftworld Kaelor, he heard they were isolationists and so paid little attention to them, he got the feeling this Corsair was one with a somewhat over inflated view of himself, but decided to accommodate to one who not only has a number of troops but possibly much wealth.

"I am Ellarian Ettiane, of Craftworld Valseris" said the ranger "recently upon the Path of the Outcast".

The Corsair prince removed his helmet revealing a middle aged but strong looking aristocrat with blood red hair "I am thankful for your aid in helping my associate, Rogue Trader Merelen Cyierk" he said giving a quick look to the human. "Perhaps we can discuss things more appropriately aboard my ship? I am sure we have so much to talk about"

Ellarian nodded to the Corsair Prince

"I would be delighted to" he replied

The group then turned to the webway gate, Ellarian was the last to leave; he took one last look into the azure forest before stepping through the gate. The gates then powered down and generated a shroud field to hide its presence, the wilds continued their chatter and life went on in the forest.


End file.
